The Tab (scvd-tab)

mcp-name: store.scvd/tab Your agent remembers every tool you sign up for and warns you before a trial converts — so you never pay for software you forgot about.

An MCP server from scvd.store. Local JSONL, append-only, zero dependencies. The full specification is THE_TAB.md at the repo root; the schema contract is SCHEMA.md.

Why this exists

Every builder carries a quiet ledger: the trial that converts Thursday, the annual plan that renews in March, the API that bills by usage, the thing signed up for in April and never opened since. Nobody keeps that ledger, so the bank statement keeps it for you — one surprise at a time. And now agents sign you up for tools too, which makes the ledger longer and the forgetting faster.

The Tab is that ledger, kept where you already work: inside the agent. Log a trial and the pager warns you before it converts. Ask whats_due at the start of a session and the dearest thing is the first line. Ask burn_rollup and get the monthly number with what it is made of — and what it cannot see.

What makes it different

It never asks for a credential. Every subscription tracker before it wants your bank login or your inbox OAuth. The Tab inverts the architecture: your agent reads mail through a connector it already holds (SWEEP_ROUTINE.md), you export the card CSV yourself (reconcile_card_statement), and the tab holds a credential to exactly nothing. There is no account to breach because there is no account.

Local first, exit always. The whole product is one human-readable JSONL file on your machine, written by a server with zero dependencies you can read top to bottom in a sitting. export_tab hands everything back, any time, no charge — a product that holds your history hostage is the disease; this is the cure's own hygiene.

Warnings that ride the agent, not an app you must remember to open. An MCP server cannot wake anybody, so the clock runs outside (a one-line cron) and open pages ride back on any tool call — a trial converting tomorrow reaches you on whatever your agent was doing anyway. And a page handed to an agent is not a page you heard: only acknowledge_pages spends one, and pages that age out unspoken are counted against the product as unspoken_pct, not assumed away.

Every number says what it cannot see. The burn figure never ships bare: it arrives with the coverage block — what fed it, which part is an estimate (usage-based bills are marked, never smuggled), what the last mail sweep could not place, and how far the bank's own statement diverged. A dashboard that hides its blind spots is a prettier way of being wrong.

It remembers which doors need a human. Every signup can record what the path demanded — agent_native, email_only, phone_required, kyc_required, human_only — so check_before_signup warns before an agent-driven signup dead-ends on a wall somebody already hit.

Facts and counts, never advice. The tab says what you trialed, what you pay, and when it converts. "Cancel it" is your agent's sentence to say, not the tab's — by design, enforced by what the tools are able to return.

Install

One config block, any MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scvd-tab": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scvd-tab"]
    }
  }
}

Or from a clone of the repo, no npm involved:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scvd-tab": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/tab/server.mjs"]
    }
  }
}

The tab lives at ~/.scvd/tab.jsonl (override with TAB_PATH or --path <file>). It is a plain JSONL file, it is yours, and export_tab hands it back in full any time — a product that holds your history hostage is the disease; this is the cure's own hygiene.

Running the clock

An MCP server speaks when spoken to; it cannot wake anybody. So the pager runs from outside:

# every morning at 9 — prints nothing when nothing is due
0 9 * * *  npx -y scvd-tab-pager

Or from a clone: cd /path/to/repo && npm run --silent tab:pager.

Without a cron the clock still runs, on any tool call: the next time the agent touches the tab for any reason, the open pages ride back with the answer. With a cron the warning is timely; without one it is at least inevitable. With neither a cron nor an agent that has rounds, nothing arrives — that case is not fixed and is not pretended away.

A page handed to an agent is not a page the builder heard. Only acknowledge_pages records that somebody said it out loud, and pages that age out unacknowledged are counted rather than deleted.

The mail sweep

The tab holds no mail code and never will. The sweep is an agent routine over a connector the agent already holds, writing through the same validated tools as any other caller. Its contract — including the counting obligation that keeps the coverage number honest — is SWEEP.md; the step-by-step routine an agent executes is SWEEP_ROUTINE.md. The counting itself is machinery, not diligence: sweep_tally counts verdicts as they arrive and writes the matched entries, and sweep_finish derives the coverage record from what was actually reported, so the books balance by construction.

The tools

| tool | what it answers | |---|---| | whats_due | the pager: what should be said to the builder right now, worth most first — run it every round | | acknowledge_pages | you actually said them; only this spends a page | | log_tool_event | the write: trial started, paid, canceled, replaced, renewed, price changed | | capture_tool_event | quick capture (/log): a fragment lands, always, with gaps named rather than invented | | trials_converting_soon | which trials charge inside the horizon, and which ended with no resolution logged | | check_before_signup | should the builder sign up? their own history, current coverage, and whether this door needed a human last time | | stack_audit | the burn report: monthly total, unused list (honestly labeled), overlaps, price drift, signup-friction picture | | burn_rollup | the confrontation: category subtotals, annualized, idle share, trajectory, shareable badge, and the coverage block | | needs_attention | the drip: what is outstanding, dearest first and capped | | confirm_entry | a human looked at a swept entry and says it is real — or marks it private | | record_coverage | the sweep reports what it read and what it could not place (SWEEP.md) | | sweep_tally | the sweep's running count: verdicts in batches, matched entries written, refusals out loud (SWEEP_ROUTINE.md) | | sweep_finish | close a sweep; its coverage record is derived from the tally, never restated from memory | | reconcile_card_statement | ground truth, monthly: the bank's CSV against the tab, both directions — writes nothing, every finding is a question | | whats_current | the builder's history in a category | | contribute_anonymized_delta | deliberately send one anonymized delta to the scvd pool (consent required, layer 3) | | set_consent | contribution on/off — recorded as an event in the tab itself | | export_tab | everything, jsonl or csv, no charge, no lock-in |

What it will not do

Facts and counts only, never advice — the tab says what you trialed, what you pay, and when the trial converts; "cancel it" is your agent's sentence to say, not the tab's. Nothing leaves the file except a delta you consented to and your agent deliberately sent. Prices, payment labels, problem text and notes never ride a delta.

Signup friction

Every event may record what the signup path demanded: agent_native, email_only, phone_required, kyc_required, human_only. The tab remembers which doors need a human, warns before an agent-driven signup dead-ends, and — with consent — feeds the agent-readiness index: which tools agents can actually reach, measured, over time.

Tests

npm run tab:test

Runs on Node's own test runner; no framework, same as no dependencies.